Mother Knows Best 'verse: During the aftermath of the Grand Central Station incident, Skylar realizes that she doesn't belong with the mourning group. She deals with the emotional situation in her own way and leaves for Chicago to be with her daughter. Post 2x13.

Here's a new installment in my "Mother Knows Best" 'verse. Blame the Alphas marathon; I'm running on 5 hours of interrupted sleep and, hopefully, a lot of coffee to compensate.

I have this question: Why is Z's nickname "Pigeon"? I've summed it up to two different scenarios, but there's one that I cannot resist putting in my head canon. This takes place shortly after the season two finale.

I own nothing, especially not the reference to Disney's "Lady and the Tramp".

Love Remains The Same

Skylar had gotten away; she wasn't proud of leaving New York after a good chunk of the city died, but she just couldn't stay. She never did well in emotional situations, and with Dr. Rosen's passing, the tattooed Alpha knew that that much was to come.

The mother grimaced as she looked out at the sunset. Even if she had have wanted to stay, there was no way that Skylar would have allowed herself to stay away from her family. She had almost lost her daughter twice within the past few months, it was safe to say that the tattooed brunette wanted to keep Zoe close for a good, long while.

When Sky left New York, the city was in shambles. Out of everyone who had been in Grand Central that previous night, only the Alphas came out alive. Seeing how Skylar still had a family to get back to, no one really blamed her for leaving; everyone needed someone in the wake of a tragedy, after all. She got to Chicago in a timely manner; up until her arrival, Skylar had actually been excited. (You know, as excited as she could have been after the hellish time that she had been having as of late…) Of course, the closer she got to her ex's apartment complex, the more nervous she became. It had been about seven years since they had last spoken. She was just hoping that he didn't have a wife or a steady girlfriend by now; the last thing that their family needed was a custody trial.

The tattooed Alpha took an inward breath as the taxi came to the final stop.

"Alright, Mrs. Brenner," the driver piped up; Skylar didn't trust him enough to give her real last name. Though, she flushed just a little bit, given that that was her ex's surname. "You have a pleasant evening. Stay warm. Temperatures are starting to drop."

The brunette nodded, forcing a smile. "Thanks," she murmured, grabbing her bag and slinging it across her shoulder. As she opened her door, she had to take a moment to catch her breath, Simon was standing on the sidewalk, Zoe settled against his hip. He was as clean cut and handsome as she remembered him to be seven years ago. His blue eyes met with her brown ones, kick starting her heart just a little faster.

Simon headed over to the cab and ducked his head in. "Do you need a hand?" he asked with a gentle smile. It had been far too long; he was just as nervous as she was.

"Mommy!" Zoe chimed in, squirming out of her father's arms. He put her down and she lunged for her mother.

"That wasn't exactly what I had in mind, Zoe, darling," the blonde doctor chuckled nervously, watching the mother-daughter interactions. Skylar got out of the cab and hugged her six-year-old as tightly as she could. "Sky," he began again as he noticed that she had started sobbing quietly.

The brunette looked over at Simon, dragging a free hand across her face. "Sorry. It's been—"

"You don't have to feel the need to explain yourself just yet, alright?" Simon told her, slipping an arm around her. When she nodded, he began to lead her towards the apartment complex.

There was plenty of time for explanations; right now, all that mattered was that this broken home was back together again. At least for now.

o—o—o

Everything seemed right with the world as Skylar tucked Zoe into her bed that night. Even though she and Simon still had no idea what had happened in each other's lives in the past seven years, the elder Alpha still felt safe. It had been a long while since she felt like she could finally relax. (It only took her a little while to finally stop pinching herself.) She sat down next to her daughter, a smile growing on her face. Zoe was trying so hard to keep her eyes open; she clutched at her stuffed animal and fought the urge to yawn.

"Pidge, you look tired," Skylar told her six-year-old, who shook her head. "No, you're not tired?"

"No," Zoe murmured sleepily, a yawn finally escaping her lips. "Not tired. Gotta stay 'wake with mommy and daddy. Make sure they kiss and make up."

The dark-haired mother laughed and sent a look back at Simon, who was standing at the door looking in. That had been a running joke since Skylar's arrival. Her six-year-old daughter was trying to get them back together. No matter what time it was, or what the three of them were in the middle of, Z would always get her two cents in about getting her parents to kiss. They hadn't done so just yet, much to their daughter's disapproval.

"You're going to have to wait for a little while yet, pigeon," Sky told her daughter, smiling at the child's prominent pout. "Dad and I haven't seen each other since before you were born," she glanced over at her ex-fiancé, "there's still a lot that we need to talk about."

Zoe sighed and hunkered down under her covers. "Okay. Tomorrow, then?"

"We'll see, Z, we'll see," Skylar kissed her daughter's forehead and tucked her in tightly. "Night, baby." The mother stood up and watched as Simon went over to Zoe and kissed her goodnight in the same fashion.

Once the lamp on her bedside table was turned down to just a dim light, both parents left the six-year-old with high hopes that she would fall asleep without any trouble.

Skylar crossed her arms and headed down the hallway, her head already beginning to throb at the argument that she was just waiting for.

"Sky, wait up!" Simon called after her. "Look, I know I was a real boggan back when I left you, but I want to make it up to you… You have no idea how miserable I've been, knowing what I did to our family."

The brunette's shoulders slumped; why did he have to bring this up now? "You should have felt miserable, Simon. Some part of me still resents you for leaving me pregnant and alone. But…" Skylar turned around to face Brenner, her voice stronger than what she actually felt, "I don't want to fight about this. It won't change the past."

"I don't want to fight either, Sky." Doctor Brenner gently whispered to her, tugging her by the belt loop. "But I did want to say that I was sorry. And, anything, anything at all that I can do for you or Z? Just name the price."

"I want you to be the world's best father. Z's only had me for the past six years of her life. If anything, just be there for her," the tattooed Alpha kept eye contact with Simon, twitching a little as he reached out to touch her cheek.

He dropped his hand, sighing, "Sky… I can't promise to be the world's best father. Not after the father figure I had in my life…"

"Simon, you're a doctor, you wouldn't harm a fly that didn't truly deserve it. You told me yourself, remember?" She reminded him of the first time that they met. He had taken her in, and had told her about the Hippocratic Oath that he had sworn to uphold.

"I still left you and our unborn daughter. And after that, there wasn't a sheila around that I hadn't tried to sleep with, at least once. What—what makes me better than Bobby?" Simon's accent grew thicker with his distress, which caused Skylar to be the one to reach out this time. She grabbed him by his shirt collar and pulled him down to her level.

"You are nothing like him, Simon. And you never will be; I'm not expecting you to get over your past, but I don't want you pushing us away because you're afraid that you'll be a bad father," Skylar gave him a weak smile, knotting her fingers up in his curly hair, "or a bad husband."

Simon ducked his head a little more to catch the brunette's lips with his own. Their senses heightened as the kiss grew deeper, surging passion through their systems that spread like wildfire. Seven years of pent of frustration, sadness, envy, regret, and love all wrapped up in a somewhat cohesive whole.

Simon wrapped his arms around Skylar and continued the kiss that neither of them was ready to break away from. "God, Sky, I missed this so much."

"What? You missed us making out? Or you missed us in general?" the tattooed Alpha smirked just a little, her mouth still hovering over the doctor's.

"Will you kill me if I said a bit of both?" he asked sheepishly, which prompted her to kiss him again.

"Not at all. In fact… I need this right about now. I don't want to talk about how I'm feeling anymore," Skylar whispered as she began unbuttoning her ex-fiancé's shirt, "we've said our apologies, now it's time to resume where we left off at."

"Don't you want your ring back first?" Simon looked down at her, grinning as she just gawked at him. "Okay, later then."

The brunette Alpha fiddled with the last button of his shirt and let it fall to the floor, her hands gliding across his chest to make it quicker. Once she started kissing him again, the doctor scooped her up and carried her to his bedroom.

Seven years had been way too damn long.

o—o—o

The next morning, Zoe came up to her parents, who were still practically glowing from the previous night. She plopped onto the kitchen chair closest to them and stood up on the cushion, clearing her throat.

Skylar looked over at her daughter, grinning slightly, "morning, pigeon," she scooped her six-year-old up and hugged her tightly before putting her back in the chair the right way.

Zoe looked over at her mommy; she was wearing a sky blue bathrobe, one that she didn't know that her mother had. Simon was at the stove flipping some pancakes, sending smug little grins back at the elder Alpha every so often.

"Mommy, did you and daddy kiss and make up yet?" the six-year-old asked, looking in between both parents.

"Yeah, Zoe, we did. Your dad and I are making it work," Skylar smiled down at the diamond on her left hand. She went over to her daughter and placed a glass of milk in front of her. This was what she never thought she'd be able to do. Living in a normal, everyday life where she didn't have to run around half-cocked, looking over her shoulder. She could watch her little girl grow up the way that she was supposed to be, as a child.

Simon walked over to his two favorite girls, sitting the stack of pancakes in front of them. He gently kissed his bride-to-be and settled for ruffling his daughter's hair. "So, Z, mum has a nickname for you, so what shall I call you?"

"Mmm," the six-year-old took a minute to think about that, "I dunno, daddy. Mommy came up with mine because Lady and The Tramp is my favorite movie. And… that's what Lady's nickname is, right mommy?"

"Yeah, kiddo," Skylar sent her daughter an affectionate smile; one she hadn't had much practice using. Maybe this would also be a good chance for her and Zoe to mend their relationship as mother and daughter. Living the way they did, those heartfelt moments were rare.

It felt horrible being this happy, knowing the tragedy that had just happened not even forty-eight hours ago. But one thing was for certain; Skylar would never trade it for anything in this world.

After watching the season finale, I had to do some minor changes to the plot itself, but luckily, the story remained in tack. What did you think? Want to see more of Skylar, Z, and Simon?

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